THIS is the chilling CCTV footage that shows Nicholas Salvador on the rampage after beheading 82-year-old Palmira Silva to death with a machete.

Salvador, 25, had to be Tasered six times by police after the brutal attack on the innocent great-grandmother.

He has since been detained under the Mental Health Act after a jury found him not guilty of murder on the grounds of insanity.

London's Metropolitan Police released the footage which shows Mrs Silva lying on the ground as Salvador breaks fences and approaches a garden where children are playing.

As the family played outside, a police officer at the front of the property jumped onto their garage and warned them to go indoors.

Officers can then be seen evacuating the children through a window to get them to safety.

(Image: Metropolitan Police)

Salvador, who was staying with a 'host family' three doors away from the victim, was mentally ill at the time of the killing and believed in demons and 'shapeshifters'.

At around 1pm on 4 September last year he armed himself with a wooden pole and a large knife at his home in Nightingale Road, Edmonton, north London.

Salvador moved through two back gardens before kicking down the door of a property, only to emerge and attack a car contains two members of his host family.

(Image: Metropolitan Police)

He then jumped over a wall into Mrs Silva's back garden and repeatedly stabbed her with a machete before cutting her head off.

Salvador was found not guilty of murder at The Old Bailey on the grounds of insanity. A jury took 41 minutes to reach its decision.

The killer will be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

The skunk cannabis smoker had lost his job in billboard advertising three days before the killing over concern about his behaviour.

Bernard Richmond QC, for Salvador, said: "It is one of the bitter ironies of this case that Mrs Silva was probably the least evil person you could think of and it is noticeable that throughout this trial her family ... have conducted themselves with a quiet dignity which is a tribute to both themselves and Mrs Silva.

"It is plain also that when he is not unwell Mr Salvador is somebody regarded as a decent man."

Judge Hilliard told the court: "There isn't any dispute that he was legally insane at the time."

Jonathan Rees, prosecuting, had previously told the court: "The defendant tore down the fence between the rear gardens and an annex.

"While he was doing that a father and his two young sons were playing in the back garden of [their home] the defendant entered the annex by the back door which was already open."